SCAPEGOATING O’REILLY

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a story in today’s New York Times that details how some of Bill O’Reilly’s critics are trying to blame him for the death of Dr. George Tiller:

In all of Bill O’Reilly’s denunciations of Dr. George Tiller, he never once called for anyone to even post his address on the web, never mind call for his death. Yet O’Reilly is being blamed for Tiller’s murder. If O’Reilly’s critics had any sense of decency, or fairness, they would have long condemned what Hustler king Larry Flynt once said about the Fox News Network personality.

On August 5, 2003, Flynt launched a National Prayer Day, calling for O’Reilly’s death. Flynt asked God “to afflict Bill O’Reilly with a brain aneurysm that will lead to his slow and painful death. O, Lord, may his blood vessels bulge out of his head and explode without mercy.”

To my knowledge, none of O’Reilly’s foes have ever damned Flynt for this despicable comment. They therefore have zero moral capital to lash out at O’Reilly for his criticisms of a man who proudly took the lives of over 60,000 children.